Jeremiah 1:17-19 -
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I
command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and
brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the
princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the
land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against
thee; for I [am] with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

Jeremiah 3:16 - And
it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those
days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the
LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither
shall they visit [it]; neither shall [that] be done any more. At that time they
shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be
gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk
any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

Jeremiah 23:5-6-
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous
Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely: and this [is] his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The prophet Jeremiah prophesied to the
Jews in Jerusalem and Judah about 50 years before Jerusalem would fall and
be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Jeremiah continually preached against
the folly of idolatry and pleaded with the people the Word of God, "what
injustice have you found in me?" he cried, "why have you gone far from me and
followed idols, and have become idolaters?", "I brought you into a beautiful
country to eat of its fruit and its goodness, but you have defiled my land and
made my heritage and abomination." Jeremiah warned that Jerusalem would be
destroyed and the Jews would be taken away as captives to the land of
Babylon. The words of Jeremiah were violently rejected and he was continually
persecuted, but God warned them at the beginning of his ministry not to be
"afraid of their faces". While Jeremiah was in prison grieving over the sins of
his people the Lord came to him and said "behold, the days are coming, says the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant" (Jeremiah 31). Soon afterwards Jerusalem
was indeed destroyed in 586 BC as Jeremiah prophesied. But he claimed that their
captivity would only last 70 years and then they would return to their land.
Jeremiah also prophesied against the pagan nations around Israel. Later he was
forced to go and live in the land of Egypt and there is no record of what
happened to him.

"Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of
Israel," says the LORD. "It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a
nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. . .
"Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus
says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will bring such a
catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle."
Jeremiah 5:15; 19:3

The prophet Jeremiah began his ministry during the reign of King Josiah, and
he prophesied the Word of the Lord until the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC
when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and destroyed the city and her Temple
(Jeremiah 1), and he continued to prophesy even after this event. Jeremiah began
ministering in 627 BC during the reign of King Josiah, he was the "son of
Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth" which was a city near Jerusalem.
When the Lord called him he was very young (Jeremiah 1:6), and the Lord revealed
to him that his word would be rejected and yet he was not to be afraid of their
faces. They also learned that an enemy from the North would come and bring about
the destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 1:11-16), and this time it would not be
the Assyrians as with the northern kingdom of Israel, but it would be the
Babylonians. All the kings who reigned during the time of Jeremiah were: Josiah,
Jehoa-haz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah and Jerusalem was destroyed in the
11th year of the reign of king Zedekiah in 586 BC. The event of the burning of
the city of Jerusalem and of the Temple of Solomon is found in 2 Kings 25:8,9
and Jeremiah 52:12-13.

Jeremiah was quick to obey God and to reveal to the children of Israel in
Judah their sins, and as God had warned him he was hated with much hostility
both in his hometown of Anathoth and in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:18-23). It even
indicates that his own family "dealt treacherously" with him (Jeremiah 12:6),
but this was a calm before the storm for Jeremiah who was known as the weeping
prophet. Because of his fearless prophesying during the reigns of the next four
kings of Judah, and the fact that he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem
because of the people's sins he was hated all the more. He went into hiding
because of the wrath of Jehoiakim who had cut up his book of prophecies and
burned them. Judah finally went into a first wave of captivity by the
Babylonians under Jehoiachin, and they placed Zedekiah in his stead as a puppet
king. Eventually Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon but was warned by
Jeremiah not to do so (Jeremiah 27:12). Finally the inevitable happened, on the
terrifying day of Av 9 in the Jewish calendar Nebuchadnezzar's forces
destroyedthe Temple of Solomon and the city of Jerusalem making true all of
Jeremiah's prophecies about the Babylonian invasion.

Jeremiah stayed in Jerusalem but finally was forced to go to Egypt and his
companion and secretary, Baruch came with him. They are in Egypt, in the city of
Tahpanhes we have the last mention of Jeremiah's life, and after this there is
no information and nothing is certain. His book was completed and he lived a
very long life. According to Christian tradition the Jews at Tahpanhes, hating
him for his prophecies stoned him to death. There is also a Jewish tradition
that when Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Egypt, Jeremiah and Baruch had escaped to
the land of Judea where they were allowed to die in peace.

The book of Jeremiah is recognized as his own writings and a complete book
just like the book of Isaiah. In Jeremiah 36:1-2, 4, 8, 32 it is written that
Jeremiah collected his own writings and prophecies, some speculate that he put
the book together with Baruch in the land of Egypt but there is no way to know
for certain.

Jeremiah's prophecies consisted of these primary messages:

1 ) The impending destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon;
2 ) the possibility of averting this destruction by repentance;
3 ) the submitting to Babylonian rule after it becomes apparent that domination
is inevitable;
4 ) Babylon herself will be destroyed, never to rise again; and
5 ) Judah will return from captivity and eventually achieve an unsurpassed
glory.

Outline of the Book of Jeremiah

The prophecies contained in the book are not in chronological order, a factor
which makes logical analysis somewhat difficult; however, the following general
divisions of the material is outlined here:

1) The call of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1).
2) The depravity of Judah and the inevitability of destruction from the north
(Jeremiah 2-6).
3) The illusions of temple security (Jeremiah 7-10). In this section Jeremiah weeps over
the attitude of the people that their formal observance of the temple services
will save them from destruction. He warns them that genuine repentance is their
only hope.
4) Jeremiah's complaint over his own miserable estate and the infidelity of the
Jews of the covenant (Jeremiah 11-12).
5) Further preaching and signs of the impending doom (Jeremiah 13-25). In
Jeremiah 25,
Jeremiah predicted that the length of the captivity would be 70 years.
6) Prophecies and events during the reigns of the last kings of Judah (Jeremiah 26-39 ).
7) Prophecies and events in Judah after the captivity (Jeremiah 40-41).
8) Jeremiah's activity after he is forced to flee to Egypt (Jeremiah 42-51). After a
final exhortation to abandon idolatry (Jeremiah 44), the bulk of this section
consists of prophecies against foreign nations, including a prediction of the
eventual fall and desolation of Babylon.
9) A summary chapter on the captivity of Judah (Jeremiah 52).